Portugal ends 2016 with 3.6m pay-TV subs

The number of pay-TV subscribers in Portugal reached 3.67 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2016, representing a growth of 145,000 (+4.1 per cent) on the previous year.

According to data from the National Communications Authority (Anacom), the penetration rate for the service stood at 90 per cent (+3.6 per cent).

Contributing to the growth was mostly the FTTH/B technology (+28.6 per cent), which registered the highest number of new access points ever (+235,000), taking the total to 1.05 million. At the end of 2016, FTTH/B accounted for 28.8 per cent of total pay-TV subscribers (+5.5 per cent).

However, cable TV distribution remains the main form of pay-TV access in Portugal, with 36.7 per cent of the total or 1.34 million. xDSL saw its market share drop by 9.5 per cent, to 678,000 users, the lowest figure since the end of 2013. DTH accounted for 16.1 per cent of the total (-3 per cent), or 591,000.

Around 90.4 per cent of Portuguese pay-TV subscribers had the service as part of a package. An estimated 79.7 per cent of subscribers had access to over 80 TV channels, while 15.3 per cent subscribed to premium channels (-3.3 per cent).

Revenues from the pay-TV service (stand-alone or bundled) amounted to €1.8 billion in 2016 (+8.5 per cent).

NOS Group is still the major player with a 43.5 per cent share of pay-TV subscribers (-0.2 per cent). Portugal Telecom’s Meo is second with 38.9 per cent (-1.7 per cent), followed by Vodafone (12.8 per cent) and Nowo (4.7 per cent). However, Vodafone was the only operator to increase market share in the reference period (+2.3 per cent).